First-Time Entrepreneurs: 5 Ways of Identifying Role Models for Success from Within It's not a mandate to seek external role models in entrepreneurship
By Rahul R
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Entrepreneurial success has its own magic, a magic which attracts millions.When the youth see two ex IIT students to come in the headlines throughout the world today because of their startup they are mesmerized by the dream of success.This goes with professionals as well. Today, with entrepreneurship being a key focal point even for professionals, a vast majority of the educated youth are looking at turning entrepreneurs. It is not uncommon for the first-time entrepreneurs to look up to other entrepreneurs having achieved a comparatively higher degree of success and having established huge business empires.They think of a bansal in themselves.
With business role-models being the criteria, Entrepreneur India analyses the trend by keeping in mind the first-time entrepreneurs, having started (or about to start) their own business ventures. Here, it is worth noting that fresher entrepreneurs can look within for role-models that provide motivation long-term, whilst seeking guidance from the external role-models having found success in their business ventures:
For first-time entrepreneurs – Deriving motivation from internal role models
Entrepreneurial experts believe that it is good to derive motivation from successful business owners, but the improvisations should be implemented exclusively by deriving motivation from within. In this sense, the below internal aspects could actually become role-models for first-time entrepreneurs:
Your entrepreneurial idea itself: Always derive motivation from within your business idea; the concept should do well to act as your role-model. Every iteration of improvisation you carry out on your idea, results in you becoming a better entrepreneur cum innovator.
Your entrepreneurial journey: The journey right from the ideation stage till the actual incorporation of business is actually inspiring for a majority of the entrepreneurs. You can look back at your journey, and derive motivation to move ahead. These aspects generally encompass difficulties and obstacles which need acumen to overcome. Reflecting on this acumen should potentially result in entrepreneurs seeking motivation from within, in tandem with obtaining entrepreneurial guidelines and suggestions from the successful external role models.
The good old trial and error: Even before you ideate your first business venture, the time-tested trial and error approach could act as role models. Going back and forth on the right idea and concept is the way in which a majority of the successful entrepreneurs built their empires.
You could work around a lot, talk to experts, research extensively, and use a lot of resources to develop that business model that potentially connects with the masses (consumers). Here, it is worth remembering that there is no perfect business model, it all depends on the degree of improvisation and tweaking you implement on your exclusive models. Hence, you could always look at improvisation (trial and error) as an internal role model.
Vision and value additions matter: Your clearly defined vision and focus on solving societal problems, with your entrepreneurial models, are the best internal role models cum motivators. If you are driven by passion and the willingness to introduce the unconventional to society's benefit (ala Flipkart), it is unlikely that you would be depending on external role models for aspects other than business motivation.
At the end of the day, aspect that matters the most is your business model and its USP; these need to be developed independent of external role models if comprehensive solutions are to be developed to address problems.
Small Successes: The buzz now in the entrepreneurial community is that success irrespective of levels should be celebrated. Each such milestone potentially opens up doors to bigger ones. Now, the milestones are perfect internal role models; entrepreneurs can emulate these milestones over different processes to achieve more milestones and finally complete a journey worth emulating by the new entrants.
